Archive

Thomas Emery’s Sons, Inc., commissions Calder to create a mobile, Twenty Leaves and an Apple, for the Terrace Plaza Hotel, Cincinnati, designed by Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, with twenty-nine illustrations by Calder and an essay by Robert Penn Warren, is published in New York by Reynal and Hitchcock.

“Origins of Modern Sculpture” is presented at the Detroit Institute of the Arts and travels to the City Art Museum of St. Louis.

The Calders take a road trip to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and visit Edna and Keith Warner.

Calder inquires with Willard whether she would be interested in having him make jewelry in gold, a material with which he is interested in working: I’d like to make some stuff in gold—but it makes a larger investment—shall we get into that racket?

The exhibition at Galerie Louis Carré is delayed and Calder returns to New York.

Calder and Louisa attend the premiere of Pádraic Colum’s play Balloon with mobile sets by Calder, performed at the Ogunquit Playhouse, Maine.

In a series of letters, Calder and Keith Warner begin discussing the terms of Calder creating gold jewelry for Warner’s wife: Would it be a fair proposition if I asked, as recompense, that you buy me an equal amount of gold? I have been wanting to make some more things of gold for Louisa and for

Calder holds a performance of Cirque Calder in the family’s Roxbury studio for his daughters. I have to show the children how to run it so that they can carry on.

Calder returns to Paris.

Calder stays at Hôtel de Versailles, Paris.

Jean Painlevé films Calder’s works in Paris. It is his second motion picture footage of mobiles in motion.

Calder sails from Le Havre to New York on the John Ericsson.

Calder’s work is on view at the Portland Art Museum, Oregon.

The Mirós and their daughter, Dolores, arrive in the United States. So I drove the LaSalle (open, top down) straight to La Guardia, and got there just in time. So we installed them in a little apt. on 1st Ave. (very nice), and then had a bite at Matisse’s.

The San Francisco Museum of Art exhibits Calder’s work.

The Mirós arrive at the Calders’ home in Roxbury for a visit.

Calder performs Cirque Calder at his home in Roxbury for the Mirós; Henri Seyrig (Director of the Institut Français d’Archéologie); and Henrique and Helena Mindlin.

Mattatuck Historical Society, Connecticut, presents “Alexander Calder.”

The Stable, New Haven, Connecticut, exhibits “Alexander Calder.”

“Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme” is organized by Breton and Duchamp for Galerie Maeght, Paris. Calder contributes a mobile and produces a lithograph for the catalogue, Le Surréalisme en 1947.

The Calders visit Long Island.

“Alexander Calder / Fernand Léger” is presented at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.

Hans Richter’s film, Dreams That Money Can Buy, is finally released after being in production since 1945. Two sequences are made with Calder’s collaboration: “Ballet,” the fifth dream, and “Circus,” the sixth dream. The film wins the International Award for Best Original Contribution to the

Calder visits Minneapolis to serve on the jury for the Thirty-third Annual Local Artists’ Exhibition.

Quadrangle Press publishes Selected Fables with etchings by Calder. Jean de La Fontaine is editor.

Calder exhibits his work at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, Washington, D.C.

Calder meets Burgess Meredith, who later visits the Calders in Roxbury to discuss making a film about Calder and his mobiles. Calder suggests Matter as the cinematographer.

Calder accepts Mindlin’s invitation to visit Brazil.

For the XXIV Biennale di Venezia—the first Biennale of the postwar period—Calder’s Arc of Petals is included in a presentation of Peggy Guggenheim’s collection curated by art historian Giulio Carlo Argan.

The Calders drive to the Grand Canyon, Death Valley, Reno, and Lake Tahoe, where they spend two weeks with Kenneth and Peggy Hayes. After driving to Berkeley, they leave Sandra and Mary with the Hayes family, and fly to Los Angeles.

Louisa’s mother, Louisa Cushing James, dies.

Calder and Louisa arrive in Mexico City, where they stay at the Hotel Prince. They visit with Fernando Gamboa, director of the Museo de Bellas Artes, and with filmmaker Luis Buñuel and his family.

Calder and Louisa arrive in Panama. I insisted on taking Louisa in a taxi to Panama City, to see the crazy traffic and open buildings I had seen sixteen years before, when a fireman on the S.S. Alexander.

Calder and Louisa arrive in Trinidad.

From Trinidad, the Calders fly to Belém, Brazil. On the plane they meet writer John Dos Passos.

Calder and Louisa arrive in Rio de Janeiro.

Museu de Arte, São Paulo, Brazil, presents “Alexander Calder.”

The Calders throw a farewell party before departing Rio de Janeiro. Calder improvises decorations and hangs them on the wall. Heitor Dos Praceres (Hector of the Pleasures), a Negro painter and friend of ours, had an excellent samba band, so we decided that they should come sixteen strong …The party took place

The Calders embark from Rio de Janeiro for the United States.

In Berkeley, Calder and Louisa are reunited with their children. The family spends a week with the Hayes family before driving back across country with side trips to Sante Fe, New Mexico, and Texas.

Buchholz Gallery/Curt Valentin, New York, presents “Alexander Calder Recent Mobiles, 1948.”

Calder exhibits a work on paper in “A Comparison of Primitive and Modern: 40,000 Years of Modern Art” at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London.

Calder creates mobiles for Symphonic Variations, choreographed by Tatiana Leskova with music by César Franck. The dance is performed in Rio de Janeiro.

Museu de Arte Moderna, São Paulo, presents “Do Figurativismo ao Abstracionismo” and includes five works by Calder.

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, presents “Calder & Sculpture Today,” with works by Jean Arp, Alexander Archipenko, Constantin Brancusi, Calder, and Alberto Giacometti, among others.

Buchholz Gallery/Curt Valentin, New York, exhibits “Calder.” The catalogue includes “The Studio of Alexander Calder” by Masson and illustrations by Calder of the objects exhibited.

Happy As Larry, a play written by Donagh MacDonagh and directed by Burgess Meredith with sets by Calder, opens in New York at the Coronet Theatre.

In Paris, the Calders rent an apartment for four months on rue Penthièvre from their friend, Médé Valentine.

The Calders travel around France visiting the caves of Lascaux, and Ritou Nitzschke and André Bac in La Roche Jaune, Brittany.

The Calders leave Paris and take a train to Antwerp. From there, the family takes a Finnish ship Arcturus to Helsinki.

The Calders visit Maire Gullichsen, who takes them to her villa, Mairea, in Norrmark for a week. From there, one day, we took a five-hour trip to see the Bjoerkenheims, who have one of the few remaining big farms in the north of Finland.

The Calders leave from Turku, Finland, and take a boat to Stockholm, arriving the next day. They stay in the Grand Hotel and visit Eric Grate, a Swedish sculptor.

Departing Malmö, Sweden, the Calders take a train through Denmark and Germany, and arrive in Paris.

The Calders depart Paris for Antwerp, set sail the next day on the Europa, and arrive in New York.

Calder is selected by the New York Times Book Review as one of the ten best children’s book illustrators of the last fifty years.

After two years of production, Works of Calder previews at the Museum of Modern Art. The film was directed by Matter and produced and narrated by Burgess Meredith, with music by John Cage.

Calder participates in a symposium, “What Abstract Art Means to Me,” at the Museum of Modern Art in conjunction with their exhibition “Abstract Painting and Sculpture in America.” The idea of detached bodies floating in space, of different sizes and densities, perhaps of different

Calder performs Cirque Calder at the Sert’s home in Lattingtown, New York.

Institute of Contemporary Arts, Washington, D.C., exhibits “Sculptures by Alexander Calder.”

In Washington, D.C., Calder sees Jean Davidson, a friend he had first met in 1944, and invites him to visit Roxbury.

Calder presents Cirque Calder in Roxbury.

Cage’s score for Works of Calder wins first prize at the Art Film Festival in Woodstock.

Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, presents “Calder–Miró.”

Gordon Parks photographs Calder in his Roxbury studio for Life Magazine.

Calder arrives in Paris and stays with Paul Nelson.

I must have met Henri Pichette at lunch with Giacometti in Paris. Now he wanted me to decorate his new play: Nucléa. Through Vilar, Calder meets filmmaker Agnès Varda.

Calder and Louisa attend the opening of Nucléa at the Théâtre du Palais de Chaillot, Paris. Directed by Jean Vilar with music by Maurice Jarre, the play is performed by Théâtre National Populaire. Varda photographs the production.

Galerie Maeght, Paris, exhibits “Alexander Calder: Mobiles.”

Louisa flies from Paris to New York. Calder leaves Paris on 30 May and arrives in Italy to prepare his works for the XXVI Biennale di Venezia.

Calder returns to Paris.

Calder flies from Paris and arrives in New York.